ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has urged the provincial governments to strictly monitor and bring down the prices of chicken.

Presiding over a meeting of the National Price Monitoring Committee held at the Finance Division on Monday to discuss the prices and supply position of essential food items, he asked the provincial chief secretaries to ensure smooth supply to minimise the gap between demand and supply of chicken in the market.

The adviser also directed the industries ministry to take measures to control the rising prices of edible oil, an official announcement said.

Provinces say sufficient quantities of wheat are available to meet demand

He ordered the food security ministry to hold an emergency meeting with the Trading Corporation of Pakistan, Maritime, Karachi Port Trust and other stakeholders to review the implementation of the schedule regarding offloading of wheat as decided by the logistics committee.

Dr Shaikh held detailed discussions with the chief secretaries regarding the position of wheat in the provinces. He was informed that at present sufficient quantities of wheat were available to meet the demand.

The committee was informed that the prices of perishable items as well as wheat and sugar were showing a downward trend due to improvement in their supply position and pricing mechanism.

Presenting the price trend of essential commodities, Finance Secretary Naveed Kamran informed the committee that according to latest Sensitive Price Index released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the prices of 13 essential commodities, including wheat flour, sugar, onions, tomatoes and potatoes, had declined, while the prices of 17 commodities went up slightly. Prices of 21 items remained stable.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2020